Opportunities
by somethingorrather
Summary: Two times they meet in the rain at two very different points in time. Belarus/Taiwan


**Author's Notes:** This fic is really just fluff, I apologize if the summary made you think it was something else. I haven't been in the Hetalia fandom for a while now, but the selection of femslash on this site is quite small and I had this already written, so I figured "why not post it?" I wrote it for an aph_fluffathon prompt on livejournal, "Belarus x Taiwan, meeting in the rain", but I couldn't get it finished on time...

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><p>There were many, many things Belarus was not fond of.<p>

This list included things such as: days without seeing her brother at all, dogs that bark too much, spending too much time outside of Eastern Europe, having to listen to a bunch of idiots, dandelions, American food, and rain.

Rain was on the list because:

a. It messed up her hair and clothes.

b. It made too much noise.

c. Mud was gross.

d. Belarus' luck meant that she always got stuck waiting in it.

This particular rain was not an exception to reason 'd'.

In fact, it just hammered the point in further, because there should not have been any way that a nation would get stuck at the chosen conference centre after their World Conference was over. It was planned by somebody totally responsible every month, who would make sure everybody had transport to their chosen hotel.

Except for her, apparently, so now she was stuck waiting in the rain for a bus to come along.

(At least she had brought an umbrella this time, even if she couldn't sit on the soaked bench.)

She sighed, loudly, wondering how long this was going to take. It was going to throw her whole schedule out of whack, most likely, and then she wasn't going to be able to see her brother at dinner! Then, all of her work to find out where he was eating to "coincidentally" meet him there would all go to waste!

The rain was even starting to grate on her nerves already. It was pouring quite hard today. The sound was constant, and seemed to be getting even louder. Belarus even thought she heard thunder a couple of times, which was not a good sign of it letting up anytime soon.

Belarus decided to just stare at her watch. Maybe if she glared at it hard enough this would go by faster. That bus was certainly taking it's time-

At that moment, Belarus could've sworn she'd heard something other than the rain.

"-larus! Hey, Belarus!"

Looking up from her stupid, stupid watch, Belarus was surprised to see Taiwan, of all, people, drenched and running up the street towards her, happily waving her arms.

"Oh my god, Belarus!" she exclaimed as she got nearer, taking a second to pause and catch her breath, "you are a life-saver! There's room under that umbrella, right?"

"Yes." it was a fairly big umbrella, as Belarus wanted as little rain around her as possible.

"Oh, can I join you?" Taiwan asked, looking hopefully up at Belarus.

"As long as you don't get too close." she responded, noting that Taiwan really was drenched from head-to-toe. Even her normal curly hair that sprung up a little was drooping down her face and sticking to her cheek.

"Thanks, so, so much!" she said, joining Belarus under the umbrella. Taiwan was careful to not get too close to the other nation, she must have been well aware that Belarus was not above letting her stay out in the rain, but with Belarus' position in the middle it meant that she was barely underneath, "er, could you move over a little?"

Belarus complied, holding the umbrella in one hand and moving so that Taiwan was accommodated. Taiwan held onto the umbrella with one hand as well.

They stood in silence for a moment as Taiwan continued to catch her breath, she must have ran more than just that one block, and Belarus started staring at her watch again. Only a few minutes had passed.

"So," Belarus started, seeming to take Taiwan by surprise by starting the conversation, "why are _you_ out here?"

"Er, well," she looked a little sheepish, "there was this cute-looking café that sold bubble tea near the convention centre, and since I took too long China just kind of ditched me…"

"Ah." was Belarus' sole reply.

"Why are you out here?" Taiwan asked in turn.

"Nobody arranged a ride for me or offered to take me."

"R-Really?" Taiwan looked outright surprised this time, "that sucks! Hong Kong was organizing this time, I'm going to have to have a word with him."

"You don't have to do that," as long as it wasn't raining and she could find her brother later, Belarus didn't mind not having a ride, "it happens every few meetings or so."

Rather than placating Taiwan, it had the opposite effect.

"Man, those inconsiderate jerks. Leaving a guest stranded," she turned to Belarus and looked at her directly, "if that ever happens again, just call me, 'kay?"

Belarus was genuinely surprised. How was she supposed to respond to that kind of offer, exactly? She only really knew Taiwan from those 'girl's meetings' that Hungary was always organizing. Why, exactly, was she making a nice offer like that?

"I'll consider it." was the only response she could muster in the end.

Having nothing else to say, they drifted off into silence again. Taiwan started wringing some water out of her hair with the one hand she had.

Belarus found the rain grating on her nerves again almost immediately.

"Say," Belarus started, surprising Taiwan by talking for the second time, "what do you think of rain?"

"Huh. Can't say I've heard that one before," Taiwan said, pausing to think of her answer, "I think it's kind of inconvenient, but it has this kind of romantic atmosphere, don't you think?"

"I don't find mud and water very romantic." was Belarus' immediate reply.

Taiwan looked a bit sheepish.

"That wasn't exactly what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"Well..." she trailed off again, "it's gloomy and wet, sure, but it seems to bring people together."

"In what way?" as far as Belarus was concerned, the rain got in the way of people getting together. It made transportation harder and made you want to stay indoors.

"Like... Take you and me for example. We don't normally talk, but we're both here because we both needed shelter, right? That's being brought together, isn't it?"

"I suppose so."

Taiwan didn't seem to have anything else to say. Belarus made a mental note that she should socialize more and get better at this conversation thing.

"In fact," oh wait, she did have more to say, "I'm actually kind of glad it's raining."

"You're sopping wet and you're _glad_ about it?"

"No, no, not about that," Taiwan looked sheepish again, "I mean, if it weren't raining, we'd probably be sitting on that bench in awkward silence right now, if you think about it," she looked Belarus straight in the eye and smiled, "so I'm glad I got to talk to you."

Belarus was caught off-guard again.

"Why?" she asked, glaring at Taiwan in return, "I'm grumpy, not good at conversation, and I haven't said a single nice thing to you yet."

Taiwan visibly deflated just the tiniest bit.

"I just always thought you were kind of interesting."

That was certainly the first time anyone had ever said _that_ to Belarus. She could feel her cheeks heating up.

"Well..." after all that, Belarus figured she should say something nice too, "I think you're kind of interesting too."

Taiwan looked surprised, and then started smiling again.

"Does that mean you'd want to talk to me even once we're out of this rain?"

Belarus found the answer to that question surprisingly easy.

"Sure."

**~ o ~ o ~**

"Are you kidding me?" slipped out of Belarus' mouth as she walked outside.

"What?" Taiwan looked over at her curiously.

Belarus turned to her, clearly frowning.

"It is absolutely _pouring_ out there," she gestured with her spare hand to the airport parking lot, "and I'm going to have to _walk_ through it. While carrying my suitcase."

"I tried to warn you about coming to my place during the rainy season," Taiwan said, a bit exasperatedly, "but you were more than a bit stubborn about it."

Belarus ignored this statement. She didn't want to admit she that just really wanted to see Taiwan's home after being together for half a year.

"Well," Taiwan said, "I only brought my umbrella, so I guess we'll have to share."

Belarus realized belatedly that Taiwan actually had been carrying a wet umbrella this whole time as the other woman opened it and held it above their heads.

Belarus grabbed the umbrella with her free hand, and the two started walking.

As they were walking, Belarus noticed that Taiwan looked especially happy. There was a little bounce in the way she was walking, and she was humming very quietly, which Belarus had long since learned she only did when especially pleased.

"Happy to see me?" Belarus asked.

Taiwan stopped humming immediately, realizing she had been caught.

"Of course!" she responded instantly, "that, and I've always wanted to walk under an umbrella with someone I love."

Belarus decided not to comment on the 'someone I love' comment, which was making her heart beat very fast indeed.

"You've walked under and umbrella with me before." she decided to point out instead.

"Yeah, but I wasn't in love with you yet." Taiwan countered easily.

"Don't use "love" so freely in public." Belarus scolded, knowing that she was probably blushing pretty furiously by this point judging by her still very fast heart beat.

"I'll say it as much as I want!" Taiwan proclaimed happily, with a very wide smile.

"Not if I stop you." Belarus said without thinking.

"And how will you do tha-"

Belarus let go of the umbrella, used her spare hand to make Taiwan face her, and cut her off with a kiss.

Taiwan almost let go of the umbrella herself.

"That was really cliché and is only going to encourage me." she pointed out, somehow smiling even wider than before.

"Shut up and walk to the car." Belarus countered, grabbing onto the umbrella once again, with her hand right on top of Taiwan's.


End file.
